Status of Converted Jews Subject for Negotiations Between Vatican and Nazis

September 13, 1933

Berlin (Sep. 12)

While the question of the reinstatement of equality for baptized German Jews or German Christians of Jewish origin will be negotiated shortly between the German government and the Vatican, the demand of the latter that non-converted German Jews be treated by the Nazi government in accordance with the principles of Christian charity has been flatly rejected, it was learned today.

A semi-official announcement by the German government emphasizes its refusal to discuss with any foreign power the status of the Jews in the Reich.

The insistence of the Vatican, contained in a memorandum submitted in connection with the concordat, regarding the rights of baptized Jews, will form the subject for negotiations which will open shortly, although it is vigorously opposed by the Nazi party which considers that any exemption made for the baptized Jews undermines the racial theory on which the persecutions and discriminations are based.

MAKE PERSECUTIONS RELIGIOUS

To confine the persecution to the unbaptized Jew, while exempting the convert from Judaism, would give the Nazi program a religious character. This the Nazis do not wish it to have, preferring to keep the question on the plane of “Aryan” supremacy and on racial lines.

Whether or not a compromise regarding the Christians of Jewish origin will be reached, it is certain that the Nazis are not agreeable to climbing down from their present stand regarding the German Jews who still profess the faith of their fathers.

Recent statistics estimated that the number of converted Jews or German Christians of Jewish origin does not exceed 200,000.